Home : Volume 31 : Fall 2004 :
New engine system drives design

From left: Professor John Moskwa and graduate students Matt Snyder and John Lahti sit in front of the Powertrain Control Research Lab's novel "hardware-in-the-loop" transient test system. The researchers say the new system will dramatically reduce engine development costs. (27K JPG)

In its 15th year of existence, the College of Engineering's Powertrain Control Research Laboratory continues to provide innovative solutions to engine design and development challenges. The lab, housed in the Mechanical Engineering Building, focuses on fundamental and applied research on vehicular powertrain systems. It was created in 1989 under the direction of Mechanical Engineering Professor John Moskwa. It focuses on three main areas: powertrain system modeling, nonlinear engine diagnostics, and powertrain control.

Among the lab's latest developments is a "virtual" multi-cylinder engine that researchers hope can dramatically reduce engine development costs. Designing new engines can be expensive for vehicle manufacturers, in part because of the many steps and extensive tests required for their development. But researchers at the lab have developed a new transient test system concept that promises to dramatically reduce engine development costs.

Moskwa and graduate student John Lahti have designed a "hardware-in-the-loop" system that combines a single-cylinder engine, a unique high-bandwidth transient dynamometer, and detailed real-time software that simulates a multi-cylinder engine. The result is a "virtual" multi-cylinder engine. The technology, which has been patented, is a first in a program to reproduce the dynamics of a multi-cylinder engine onto a single-cylinder test engine, and to include the best attributes of both of these engines in one system. "We want to make this engine think it's in a real vehicle," Moskwa says. "We want to replicate a real engine."

This new system offers many advantages over systems that are currently used by engineers and researchers in both academia and industry worldwide. For example, the invention allows many tasks or tests in the engine development process to be moved forward in time, because the new system replicates the attributes of a multi-cylinder engine. This significantly shortens the development process and reduces costs.

Currently, most engine manufacturers are reducing or limiting their use of single-cylinder engines, because much of the development that is done on these engines must be reworked on the multi-cylinder engine due to their differences in operation. The new PCRL invention causes these engines to operate in the same manner, so development on the single-cylinder engine can be directly carried over to the multi-cylinder engine. The new system also performs transient tests, such as standardized emissions tests, not previously possible. There is now a seamless transition between these two types of engines.

For his research, Moskwa has been given the Innovative Practice Award from the Dynamic Systems and Control Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Moskwa and Lahti recently won the Powertrain Excellence Award from the International Council for Powertrain Engineering and Management at the Global Powertrain Congress.

Content by perspective@engr.wisc.edu

Date last modified: Friday, 10-Jun-2005 15:29:43 CDT
Date created: 29-Nov-2004

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